Module 2: Cloth and Other Fiber Technologies in the Andean World

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Mary Frame
Professor Linn Hobbs
Professor Heather Lechtman

Monday, 14 June

Lecture: 8:30-l1:30 am

-- The Cultural Commitment to Fibers in Andean Society (Lechtman)
Andean environment; reciprocity and complementarity; social arenas in which fibers functioned; fiber resources; cloth and agriculture as dual forms of wealth; pervasiveness of fiber technologies

-- The Materials Science of Natural Polymer Fibers (Hobbs)
Cotton, plant fibers, camelid wool, silk; polymer chemistry; specifics of intra-fiber hierarchical structure; fiber microstructures; fiber morphologies

Laboratory: 1-5 pm

(a) Spinning yarn using Andean techniques (Frame), Rm. 16-605

(b) Examination of single fibers in the SEM for gross morphological features; discussion of fiber properties in relation to fiber morphologies (Hobbs), ESEM Laboratory, Rm. 13-1031 (entrance through CMSE Electron Microscope Facility, Rm. 13-1012, ground floor, south side of Building 13, accessible by stairs at south side of Building 13 or from outside)

Tuesday, 15 June

Lecture: 8:30-11:30 am

-- Why Cloth? (Frame)
Why cloth carries a heavy cultural load in the Andes; systematization, precision, orderliness, stability of cloth technologies permit incorporation into larger systems, like communication; technological chronology of cloth production; survey of spinning techniques and looms

-- Color (Hobbs)
Natural pigmentation; reflective coloration using dyes; dyestuffs and mordants: cochineal and indigo chromophores; alum, urine, and citric acid mordants

Laboratory: 1-5 pm

(a) Warping and weaving on a body tension loom (Frame), Rooms 16-602 and 16-536

(b) Dyeing yarns of cotton, wool, silk, and assorted synthetic fibers; use of mordants with specific dyes and fibers; spectrometry of colored yarns (Hobbs), Room 16-605 and DMSE Undergraduate Teaching Laboratory, Room 8-107

Wednesday, 16 June

Lecture: 8:30-11:30 am

-- The Paradigm of Twist: mechanical implications for single and bundled fibers (Hobbs)
From natural assemblies to human assemblies in fiber morphology; protein fibers (helical structures) vs silk (sheet structure); structures of plant and protein fibers based on twist; mechanical properties of single fibers; mechanical properties of bundled fibers: reeled, spun, plied, etc.

-- The Quipu: formatting information in the structural properties of a fiber technology (Frame)
Technological rudiments of a viable communication system; formatting in category sequences: number, color sets, oppositional pairs; quantitative, accounting quipus (knots are numbers); pre-Inca quipus

Laboratory: 1-5 pm

(a) Making a quipu using the yarns dyed in lab (Frame), Room 16-605

(b) Light microscopy of weaves; weave patterns and constructions examined with the light microscope (Hobbs), Room 16-536

Thursday, 17 June

Lecture: 8:30-11:30 am

-- Signifying With the Properties of Cloth: color, direction, symmetry, and number (Frame)
Color; direction and position; symmetrical pathways; Andean dances and their correspondence to textile structures; pre-Inca patterning in cloth and other media; textile structure as a template for the orderly variation in the patterned systems of pre-Inca styles

-- The Mechanical Properties of Woven and Non-woven Cloth (Hobbs)
Isotropic and anisotropic properties of woven materials; flexibility; diagonal stretch; tear strength; linked, looped, knotted, and twined fabrics

Laboratory: 1-5 pm

(a) Continue weaving and quipu making; introduction to braiding (Frame), Room 16-605

(b) Mechanical testing of single fibers (Hobbs), Nanotechnology Laboratory,
Room 8-110, and DMSE Undergraduate Teaching Laboratory, Room 8-107

Friday, 18 June

Lecture: 8:30-11:30 am

-- The Organization of Information in Inca tocapu and the Power of Formatting (Frame)
Media on which tocapu occurs; finite design vs infinite pattern; differences between tocapu and patterning systems in earlier textile styles; ethnohistoric and ethnographic sources about tocapu; deep Andean tradition of formatting in graphic patterns; the tocapu code: properties, format, entities, operations

-- High Strength Inca Cables: suspension bridges and building construction (Ochsendorf)
Use of fibers for long span bridges; materials and properties of bridge cables; techniques for rope making; strength of Inca cables; mechanics of rope assemblies and influence of twist on strength

Laboratory: 1-5 pm

(a) Rope making, using Andean methods of plying and braiding (Frame), Room 16-605

(b) Mechanical testing of rope made in the lab; the role of structure in mechanical performance (Hobbs), Civil Engineering Structures Teaching Laboratory, Room 1-047 (basement, along Massachusetts Avenue)

Dying wool, silk, cotton and synthetic fibers with indigo and cochineal

Examining fragment of Andean textile under a low-power stereo microscope